the president and treasury secretary baker were in japan and visited philippines and indonesia. so he calls baker and i'm assuming it's about 12 hours difference. he said jim, the president's going to love this bill. he said he's really going to love it. and there's pause and baker is talking. jim, just tell him to shut up. his friends are not going to like this bill and are going to want to get to him but the president is going to like it and don't say anything to him until we can brief him. that's the way the bill passed and that was the process. >> that was the process back in 1986. can that be the process today? feels like a different environment. >> sort of watching "lincoln." when politics worked. i don't know. we are in the middle of a political test of wills on marginal tax rates and funny we aren't fighting the underlying principle, wealthy people ought to pay more and get our economy back on track. right now the president thinks he was vindicated by his victory and wants republicans to give on marginal tax rates and they don't want to do that. but he has the whipped ha